Team Missouri Quarterback: Drew Lock

Ever wondered what a Mizzou team that was comprised of only Missouri kids would look like? Or wonder how good an only-Texan Mizzou squad would do? Well, you’re in luck! This offseason, the Rock M Masthead is assembling the best team of Mizzou players by state that they graduated high school from. We compiled a list of the significant starters on every team from the year 2000 on and voted on the best players at their position group in order to create three “All-State” Mizzou squads: Team Missouri, Team Texas, and Team USA. Over the next nine weeks you’ll read about these Mizzou Greats that hailed from the respective regions and, hopefully, come away impressed with just how good these fictional teams could actually be.

We start this week, of course, with the quarterbacks.

Team Missouri Quarterback: Drew Lock

This quote has been imprinted on my brain since the first time I saw it.

Here’s a guy, with all the options in the world and he still knew that Missouri is not just where he wanted to be, but where he wanted to succeed, and the thought of another QB being in what he deemed as his spot legitimately pissed him off. As a fan, that’s everything you ask for when you recruit an in-state kid.

Wanting to succeed is a lot different than actually succeeding, but from just about any possible perspective, Drew exceeded the expectations while at Mizzou. He left Missouri with the second most passing yards in SEC history just behind Aaron Murray. He was the single season passing touchdown (44) leader up until the Joe Burrow season at LSU. (60)

The RockM masthead vote tally may have been pretty resounding, but I personally had a tough time with this decision. Gabbert was awesome in his time at Missouri and had more team success than Drew, but I differentiated between the two of them by asking myself one question:

Which QB is the more purely talented player?

I watched some highlights of Gabbert, and they were eye popping. There was a reason he was drafted in the first round, ya know?

But then, I watched a few highlights of Lock... and I knew it was decided here. This was his true sophomore year and he was dropping dimes like this.

As it stands now, we have our QB for the All-Missouri team. He’s got a bazooka as a right arm, so that’s a plus. I wonder which running back we’ll be able to add to the squad...

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